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VIDEO - Health care game changer

Video of The Nova Scotia Health Authority&#039;s New Core Lab in Action

Nova Scotia Health Authority is now home to one of the largest automated lab track systems in North America, which processes blood and other specimens and uses the first software of its kind on the world.

Located in the Mackenzie building at the VG site in Halifax, the lab completes nine million tests per year - about 25,000 tests a day. The lab’s new automated track system will increase patient safety and provide increased efficiency while reducing the analysis time per test. It also means more predictable turnaround times for physicians. Because 80 per cent of diagnoses made by physicians are based on preliminary lab work, patients will receive their results and diagnoses sooner.

The automated system reduces a significant number of manual steps, thus reducing the amount of human interaction with specimens. This means the risk of contact with blood-borne pathogens for staff is reduced, as is the risk of error.

The Core Lab project was 15 years in the making, and went live in March of 2015.